This invention relates to the field of video analysis and management, and in particular to a core interface system that facilitates the creation of video monitoring systems.
The demand for video monitoring systems continues to increase, and what had once been a specialized, limited-competition market is becoming increasingly competitive. Video equipment manufacturers are facing increasing market pressures to provide system solutions, rather than bare components.
All video monitoring systems require certain basic video functions, such as a video capture function, a video output function, and an interface to these functions. In like manner, many video monitoring systems share a requirement for a set of common video functions, such as video recording and playback functions, event notification functions, and an interface to these functions. Typically, developers and system integrators select the components that will be used to create the video monitoring system, and then develop and/or integrate the functions and interfaces into the application program that provides the functionality of the video monitoring system. Although many standards exist at the physical interface level for communicating with components and devices, such standards do not yet exist at the video application level, and each video application program requires a design that is custom crafted for the particular video monitoring system and its intended functions.
It is an object of this invention to ease the task of creating a video application program. It is a further object of this invention to eliminate the need to custom design modules to provide basic and common video functions, herein termed core video functions, for each application.
These objects, and others, are achieved by providing an interface kernel with a defined application program interface that includes each of a plurality of core functions for interfacing with video equipment and video processing subsystems. The core functions include such functions as video capture and video output, video recording and playback, and event notification. Optional embodiments include video and data transmission functions, video analysis functions and/or interfaces to analysis subsystems, as well as interfaces to point-of-sale terminals, access control systems, and location tracking systems. An intelligent video management module facilitates managing the interactions among the other modules of the kernel, further simplifying the application level interface.
The drawing is included for illustrative purposes and is not intended to limit the scope of the invention.